


the dead remain so

by westernapparel



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Fix-It, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-11-26 14:56:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18182096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westernapparel/pseuds/westernapparel
Summary: Ben knew that ghosts saw ghosts.He also knew that most living didn't see them, but then again, he was a special case.





	1. the silence belongs to the dead

**Author's Note:**

> if ben retained some features from being dead

Ben saw the ghosts.

It was when he was dead, and the worst always flocked to Klaus. Ben would never admit it, due to the fact that he’d taken on the persona of an avid anti-drug, but if Ben were Klaus, he’d also take drugs.

Being around Klaus had the constant dead souls. Even if he took drugs, that didn’t stop Ben from seeing their faces, or lack thereof. Their deaths were bloody and gruesome and they all screamed a vengeance Klaus could never perform, and in those moments, Ben felt the utmost pity for Klaus.

When they were younger, Ben was the stark contrast of Klaus. He relished in the quiet, the only thing that could keep the horror at bay, even at the expense of hearing them explore his insides, prowling and growling so much he could barely hear his thoughts or the flip of a page.

Klaus, on the other hand, hated the silence. It allowed the ghosts to come, and so, he made to relish in the noise he made or surrounded himself with, the ghosts barely flickering out the edge of his vision with the help of liquor snuck from Hargreeves. He kept them at bay, while Ben let them creep onto him as he desperately tried to ignore them.

Ben still despised noise.

Sure, the silence can be deafening and overwhelming at some times, but the noise usually meant ghosts, and both Klaus and Ben could agree the ghosts were a terrible notion both feared more than death itself. (Especially since both experienced it.) So, when Ben came to life, he was ready to welcome the lack of ghosts.

He wasn’t ready to see the girl in a nightgown with a bashed, bloody face in red monochrome.


	2. the living dance, the dead float

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and ive returned to fuck up everything once again

The second thing Ben noticed after his sudden resurrection (a week before, Grace and Pogo and Claire were alive) was that he didn’t feel any different from being dead.

Now, this was a problem. Ben didn’t care for anything human-related when he was dead, mild curiosity at best. His death gave him so much time to distance himself from his siblings, aside from Klaus and Vanya. He grew indifferent and bitter and became all sharp edges and disapproving looks, and most of all tired.

He expected life to be something more— like when he was alive, numbness and crashing tidal waves of emotions constantly kept at bay and every move calculated. Ben had been despondent and obeying because he had been all too resigned, but it had been something, not nothing.

He wasn't wistful or desperate. Ben wished for meaning to an afterlife, like any mortal with a deal to become immortal at the expense they didn’t know. “It was all pointless,” they’d say, “I didn’t know better," but Ben was stuck with this, and it wasn’t something he had decided, so he can’t wail and moan over the past (which had become something of a bittersweet whisper to his ear).

Ben didn’t have to deal with the immortal, but he did have to deal with the dead.

Most groaned and moped and joined group malaise, faces dehumanized, long and hollow, deep and utter regret and self-pity enveloping everything Ben knew when he died. Others lived a life someplace else— in a good place, no doubt.

The others Ben could see were those bound to other people like himself, for absolutely no reason. They banded together and tried to unravel the mystery. Some dead tried to disprove afterlife, all primarily scientists and extreme atheists. (Ben had met a scientist named Carlos, who assured him that he was dead temporarily, and had a husband he had to get back to.)

So, when Ben saw the young girl already wailing and demanding someone avenge her, his reunion with his family was a distracted one at best as he realized the most important thing.

The tentacles were gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Others lived a life someplace else— in a good place, no doubt."
> 
> im waiting for my the good place and tua crossover please and thank you 
> 
> "(Ben had met a scientist named Carlos, who assured him that he was dead temporarily, and had a husband he had to get back to.)"
> 
> you know i had to

**Author's Note:**

> i forgot to mention in my other fic that ben could see the ghosts constantly haunting klaus, so here this is! i might make it into a multichap


End file.
